A state of emergency was declared for the bayfront community of Belvedere after investigation of a damaged seawall revealed the problem is larger than the city had realized.

Consulting engineers told the city late last month it should act immediately to prevent the seawall along Beach Road — which protects the area from flooding — from shifting any further or collapsing into San Francisco Bay.

An inspection of the barrier in 2017 revealed that portions of the concrete had crumbled and cracked, and city officials who have since monitored the embankment determined that a portion of it it is sagging toward the water. Engineers working on plans to fix the issue in September found that the foundation along the entire wall isn’t deep enough to protect against erosion — an issue that could ultimately cause the barrier to cave in.

Eventually, the entire seawall will need to be stabilized, but consultants say the most problematic section — directly across from Peninsula Road — is at a high risk for failure.

“We’ve learned that what was a serious consideration is now a very serious concern,” City Manager Craig Middleton told the City Council Monday night. “The wall could topple, and we weren’t aware it was quite that precarious before.”

Experts say the wall can be propped up and doesn’t need to be replaced. Workers will drive large pieces of steel — called sheet piling — deep into the bay shore along Beach Road and tether them to the seawall in an effort to stabilize it.

Initial plans called for immediate work on a 100-foot section, which would cost the city an estimated $464,000. But engineers who examined the site last month and found issues with the wall’s foundation said sheet piling should be installed along 120 feet of the embankment to better ensure its stability. A cost estimate for the expanded area hasn’t yet been released.

The city hopes construction crews can complete the project this fall, before major winter storms hit the area.

An emergency declaration should help expedite the process, according to Middleton.

A sea wall stands between the bay and Beach Road in Belvedere on March 13. (Alan Dep/Marin Independent Journal)

‘The first phase’

Beach Road and San Rafael Avenue, the city’s two main thoroughfares, were built atop levees that prevent the Belvedere lagoon — and the 290 homes surrounding it — from flooding. The city in the long-run plans to raise those two levees and the seawalls protecting them to combat sea-level rise, which Middleton this week called an increasing concern.

“That’s not going to happen for a while, but that U.N. report on Monday was quite an eye-opener for a lot of people,” he said.

In a 728-page document released this week, scientists with the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that countries should take “unprecedented” action to prevent the dire consequences of further global warming, which will continue to cause sea-level rise, extreme heat and water scarcity, among other issues, at alarmingly high rates.

Middleton said Belvedere’s larger flood protection project could break ground in late 2020. That work could cost between $11.3 million and $27.1 million, according to early estimates, depending on which design options the city selects. State funding is expected to help pay for the project.

The good news, Middleton said, is the Beach Road seawall project that needs immediate attention is already part of the larger plan.

“The nice thing is the sheet piling we’ll do for this fix we won’t have to do again for the final fix,” Middleton said. “I would describe this as the first phase of a much bigger project. Normally, we’d just wait and do it all at once, but since this wall seems to be falling, we thought we’d better get this piece done.”

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